Northwest Fishing Reports

I have only fished twice in saltwater in my entire life. Once we tried trolling for salmon about 15 years ago and got nothing, and once we bottom fished for anything that would bite about 10 years ago and got a few flounders.

I'm interested in finding places I can fish for saltwater fish, whether to keep or just catch and release.

I need a spot to fish from shore or a dock unless someone would want to take a novice out with them in their boat because the boat I have isn't really suitable for putting in the sound.

What gear would be best for this? I have several Bass fishing rods, trout rods, and one big heavy saltwater rod but it has a pretty terrible reel on it (Kmart $29.99 combo type thing from 15 years ago).

Any advice you guys can offer to a new-comer would be appreciated!

Id say first to explore your options a little bit. Go to public piers on the incoming high tides or outgoing high tides and see what everyone is doing. Buzz-bombs are usually the lure of choice. Use a single barbless hook, not that sweet treble that comes with it.Ive seen very nice fish caught off Redondo Pier,Seacrest Boathouse dock,Alki Pier,Myrtle Edwards Pier,Edmonds Pier, and so on. To me the worse pier for 0 catching was the Mukilteo Pier. That's just a start of a huge list of places to fish. Soon the Pinks will be showing and all along the Puget sound area will be a buzz with people hitting the pinks.As summer picks up so does the fishing in our area.

From what I'm seeing it looks like a Buzz Bomb is primarily a salmon lure. Personally, I don't care what I catch. I'd like to catch something that I can eat however, just to be able to say "yeah, I caught and ate <this> last weekend!" so it doesn't need to be salmon.

Are their places that aren't usually real crowded? I live in Spanaway, so things in the Tacoma area would be best. Like I said, I don't care what I catch (even if I have to release it), I just want to fish for fun.

Be careful if you decide to eat flounder out of our area, they often have worms... Its been a while since I bottom fished in the salt, but id just set up like I would for trout honestly, simple and it works. Or sometimes Ill tie up with a 1/2oz triangle weight on the bottom, and my hook about a foot and a half above.

FishBaitThe2nd wrote:Be careful if you decide to eat flounder out of our area, they often have worms... .

is this an actual problem though? eating worms?

No, and it's easy to remove them if you're worried.

I just don't care to hold mine up to a flashlight. Flounder is tasty, so are the worms I guess, since I never candle mine

I never checked in the past, I just ate them like little tiny halibut tasting jelly beans.

Ah just cook'em up, they taste like flounder. If you're worried about them freeze the fish first before you cook it.

Well I guess theres your answer, lol. Ive never ate flounder before, but every time I see someone ask I always hear or see a warning about the worms so I figured id give you a heads up

If you never want to eat fish you catch again, read this:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... jKCw8koJqA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you're truly sick, like me, you'll read it and continue to eat fish ;)

I used to work at Skipper's quite a few years ago (15ish) and we used to actually hand cut and bread the fish ourselves then. We regularly had to pick worms out of the cod.

I actually grew up in area 11 fishing from the piers and beaches, but it's been awhile since i've done much poking around out in the salt besides for pinks or killing time while crabbing. I know of few places i used to fish and have some fun.

Purdy beach (under the bridge) - used to catch a lot of nice sized pile & rainbow perch during slack or slower tides. mainly used sandshrimp on a bottom rig with number 4 hooks. Also there are pretty good sized starry flounder off the beach if you got a 8'6" or longer rod you can cast a ways with. Normally i'd rig up a wedding ring tipped with nightcrawlers or a strip of squid with some pencil lead and retrieve it just fast enough to stay above the kelp.

Fox Island Bridge - Usually just waded out there and fished the incoming tide for flounders with either a wedding ring or a slip bobber. The bridge pilings can be good for some perch too, most luck i've had with them there has been the tail end of an incoming tide and high slack.

Clay Banks - park at owen's beach parking lot and walk the beach towards the cliffs, it's a bit of a walk and you gotta watch the tides because you can get stuck out there. Walk til you get towards the light tower and your there. I've cast cutplug herring and buzz / darts for kings and silvers off the shore there with some good luck. I usually went there on a zero tide or lower and start walking as the tide was dropping fishing along the way til i could get all the way out.

Also check out the various piers (pt. defiance, steilicom ferry dock, dash pt, and les davis) there can be some fun fishing off those and watch the pilings during summer months for perch they'll nail some sandshrimp if you drop right next to the piling they're on with light line (like 6 or 8lb). Most of the public shoreline can be good for flounder on an incoming tide with a wedding ring or slip bobber.

As for gear, i'd suggest something in 8'6" to 10' ft range rated for something like 8-15lb line with a 40 sized reel loaded with 12lb main. The pic is a basic diagram for a bottom rig and if you use a slip bobber off the shore try to set it so the bait holds about six inches or so from the bottom.

Feel free to pm me if you need any more info or have a question or 2, i'd be more than happy to help you get started

Thanks for the awesome reply!

I'm going to go "scout out" some of the piers and docks today I think and just see what everything looks like. I haven't even been to Ruston Way or Pt. Defiance on foot in probably 10 years now.

I might even go to Narrows Marina or Pt. Defiance Marina and see what they charge for boat rentals and all that. It might be something my Dad would enjoy doing with me as long as it's not too pricey.

I'll need to buy a new rod/reel for this I'm sure. I think I can probably find something that would work pretty cheap at Walmart or Kmart, just to get me started. I don't want to spend $100+ just to see if I can catch anything at all. You recommend 8.5-10ft long? I'm used to 6-6.5ft for bass fishing, so that'd be a big change for me.

Main reasons for the longer are casting distance & sensitivity, most of the fish your gonna find out in the sound are gonna peck at your bait. A lighter sensitive rod will help prevent gut hooking everything and also a rod like i suggested would work well for for salmon off the piers and shore. Check out sportco in fife, normally the have okuma celilos rods for about 45 bucks or so and some decent okuma reels for 15 bucks and up. I wouldn't spend too much on a reel for fishing in the salt, they'll get eaten up in a couple seasons depending on how you care for them and how much you fish.

What Power/Action rod would you suggest? Medium fast?

Yeah, a fast action rod with something like a 8-15lb (depending on the company that could rated any from Medium - light to Medium heavy).

Logan80, I would suggest you go down to Fife and hit Sportco for your rod and reel, your going to get a better deal and better options then you will at Kmart. You can get a Okuma for about $40 and a usable spinning reel for about $30. Or checkout TopKick Jewelry and Loans Pawn Shop on Pacific, I got a decent rod and reel in there for about $50.

On the boat rentals at Point defiance I would be cautious, the boats are very uncomfortable and underpowered, some currents in that area are stronger than the motors, specially closer to the bridge.

Im in your area so if you need lake and river info to go message me.

I talked to a guy at Point Defiance Marina and he told me the boats only have 9.9hp motors. That definitely seems VERY underpowered for out there. My Dad retired as a DOD Civilian a couple weeks ago and has access to some really nice rentals on JBLM, I'm sure that's what we'd use instead of the Pt. Defiance boats. Better prices also.

I spoke to another guy there that was fishing off the pier and he said it's really not the best spot. That you pretty much need to get out in a boat to have much of a chance at anything, or try Dash Point. He just said the fishing in that particular location is usually pretty slow.

Ive used the boats from JBLM, Definitely better than the ones at point defiance.

The Okuma SST rods are good bang for the buck. Im pretty sure you can find a fast action one rated 8-15 lbs. Mines as been through a lot and still havnt had any problems.